It all started back in 1999 fishing with my dad at dartford on a day ticket,we used to float fish with maggots,hemp,sweetcorn.Catching small roach,skimmers,and plenty of perch.We only went in the summer 5 or 6 times and to be honest i wasn't really in to it a great deal.
But then in spring of 2003 ,myself and my mate rusti who were fed up of playing football e.t.c decided to go for a day floating on the river darenth in dartford (near holy trinity church and wickes) with maggots we only caught a couple of pearch but it was all good and we had a good laugth,we then used to go every other week through the summer .
In 2004 we carried on with the rivers but we both wanted to try a lake fishing,but with dartford being so weedy there was no chance of use getting a rig in the water believe me we tried,we were aware of a lake in hawley known as blue laggon this lake is a small lake in the middle of a chalk pit behind Darenth otters lake and one day we tried it we caught 21 perch between us myself catching 13 and rusti catching 8 a big improvement from 1 or 2 a day in the rivers.
In January of 2006 my dad applied me and himself for a ddaps license,he himself used to have one but gave it up due to work reasons some years ago before my time,i couldn't wait to see the lakes known as Horton kirby and Sutton and in the March of 2006 i got in to the club COME ON.....The same week my license came through. i was encouraged to try something new by my dad in the form of a method known as quiver-tipping at the time i didn't have a clue what it was ,but was willing to give it ago.
The first Saturday available we were off to Horton kirby,We arrived at the lake at first light(4 AM) after a quick look around the lake, we set up in a swim known as the beaches on the Viaduct lake,the cage feeder was filled with groundbait and sweetcorn and we were using sweetcorn as a hookbait,i cast out the rig sunk the line and positioned it on the rests,after a good 10 minutes, staring at the quiver it finally moved not enough to strike but enought to get me on the edge of my seat,then suddenly it bent round strike it shouted my dad and, i did after a nervouse 3-4 minutes it was in the net,a bream at 2 lb i was delighted considering my pb befor this was only around 6 oz.My dad then caught one at about 3lb .2 fish in 3 hours i was delighted with that but my dad said the other lake might be better.So we moved in to the Fields lake and had a further 2 bream of about the 2lb mark.The sun then started to get hot about 11 am and the fish stopped feeding,so we called it a day.This was the day i feel in love with fishing and Kirby.....
The Tuesday after the Saturday,i decided to go to Dartford with my Brother for a few hours again with the quiver tip rod .Dartford was still a bit on the weedy side but know where near as bad as what it was,I set up on the A2 bank casting toward the candy stick the quiver only moved once and resulted in a 7 lb Bream and a new pb COME ON.
I continued to quiver and floatfish throught the season till about may when my dad again suggested i should try something new ....carp fishing in the form of a sleeper rod an also have a go on the western lake.
A week or so after i decided i wanted to start carping i was on the the western with my dads old carp gear a michell 300 reel and a old rod that he made up himself many years ago for bait i was using 10 mm tutti frutti...mmmmm,i also was float fishing with sweetcorn,i set up in the hilton swim on the western i set up the carp rod first ,cast it out and chucked a good hand full of boilies on top of the rig which was about 20 yards out ,placed it on the bite alarm and put the bobbin on which was a washing up top....back to the old days.... i was floating with a particle approach the good old sweetcorn and hemp,down a margin to the left,to cut a long story short 1 recieved 1 run on the sleeper rod ,which i missed(wasn't using a bolt rig)and i had a carp a 2.5 lb common which was very welcome as my first carp.
I had about 15 carp in 6 months from the western and plenty of bream and small fish(i was fishing at this time with a float rod and a sleeper rod).
Christmas and winter, had past and it was a new season,i had got a load of carp stuff for christmas,new rod,reels,bite alarms,pod......mmmmmmmm... March came and i was ready to go and catch those carp,i fished for carp only 99 % of the time,up until may i had not had much success fishing in the middle of the lake until,i had a talk to a man know as robin......how is the kirby baliff as far as im aware.....he told me to try the fatter end of the lake (the viaduct end)on the end swim.The week after that there i was